P28-29 MBAS8 Diversity Law 18/2/08 17:55 Page 2
Editorial
CAREERS
Diversity and the Law.
Caroline Parry on legislation to enforce global movements towards diversity, and how leading MBA
recruiters are taking the initiative in this arena.
However, international employers are faced
with different laws when operating in several
markets across the globe. US anti-discrimination
laws, for example, may be underpinned by the
same principles as Europe, they may not be
applied in exactly the same way.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the
US and Europe enforcement and management of
the laws. US federal anti-discrimination laws are
enforced by the Equal Employment Opportuni-
ties Commission, a government agency. It enforces
laws and deals with complaints on age, disability,
equal pay, national origin, pregnancy, race,
religion, gender and sexual harassment. While
these laws have been in place since the 1960s,
there have been recent moves to update them.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
There are also proposed laws under the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which will
make it illegal to "fire or refuse to hire or otherwise
discriminate against employees for being gay,
lesbian or bisexual". It is still legal to fire someone
iversity is an issue that no top Juliane Kronene, Managing Director at based on their sexual orientation in 30 US states,
D
MBA recruiter can afford to Boston Consulting Group, Cologne, agrees: although 90% of the Fortune Top 500 Companies
ignore. It is a buzzword in global “Most of the customers of our clients are females, already include sexual orientation as part of their
business and companies are therefore we need mixed teams representing the anti-discrimination policies. The bill, which was
increasingly moving it towards overall expectations of the customer base. But voted out in 1996, is still under consideration.
the top of their agenda. diversity does not end with gender. We also need In Europe, the same principles are enforced
Diversity policies aim to recognize and people with different backgrounds, who add a great through the Equal Treatment Framework
value the differences between everyone and are range of skills to the team. Engineers are as Directive but not by any one single body as it is
different to equal opportunities policies, which welcome as biologists.” implemented on a country-by-country basis.
aim to reduce discrimination through positive
strategies to create a level playing field. Diversity
“Demand for MBAs has been great in recent times,
recognizes that people are different and, as such,
can bring different attributes to a team
but it is cyclical and you never know what is
Says Prof. Dr. Tawfik Jelassi, Dean of ENPC
School of International Management, “Diversity
around the corner.”
is not politically correct, it makes good business
sense. Women tend to bring an equilibrium and There is a clear case for diversity on a The directive, which was introduced in 2000 and
fairer treatment of both hard and soft skills, and business, social, moral and legal basis. While many implemented over the past seven years, requires
they bring more corporate responsibility, cultural industry observers argue that legality is by no means member states to "establish laws for the prevention
and personal ethics. Diversity brings a fresh the most important, employers can face prosecu- of discrimination on the grounds of religion or
perspective to doing business that the corporate tion and large compensation pay outs if found beliefs, disability, age or sexual orientation," but it
world needs.” guilty of failing to follow anti-discrimination laws. also allows countries to balance this against their
28 TopMBA CAREER GUIDE www.topmba.com
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